I'm working on a tool that will extract a location from JPEG exif lat/lng values, but also let the user set a location manually if not present in exif data.
I'm experiencing some weirdness with Google's reverse geocoding API where it seems unable to find major tourist attractions when I have accurately provided a lat/lng right at the location, even when the same location is findable with Google's places autocomplete API. For example:
If I search for "Tian Tan Buddha" in the autocomplete API, one of the results I get is this place ID: ChIJMU72avZYATQRcPDlSybkD00 (https://www.google.com/maps/place/?q=place_id:ChIJMU72avZYATQRcPDlSybkD00). the latlng value from the autocomplete API result is 22.2539847,113.904984, so I take that and try to reverse geocode the exact same coordinates:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=22.2539847,113.904984&key=[my_key]
This yields eight results, all broadly in the right place, none of which is is place ID ChIJMU72avZYATQRcPDlSybkD00 and none of which has "Tian Tan Buddha" in any field within the result set.
I'm seeing this same effect all on photos from all over the world - at Buckingham Palace, in large sports arenas etc.
Can anyone shine any light on why the reverse geocoding API would be incapable of returning results that are absolutely positively right at the provided lat/lng coordinates and known to Google?